Broken
by IWEYC
Summary: Jaune Arc was broken. From backstabbing 'friends' to uncaring family, the idea of suicide had felt nice. But all he ever really needed was someone to care for him, to not care that he was weak or repulsive, only to care that he was himself. (One-shot)


On the rooftops of Beacon Academy, the sound of metal clashing with metal could be heard between two partners. Jaune Arc and Pyrhha Nikos.

This had been becoming an almost daily occurrence that the hunters-in-training have learned to take in stride.

Jaune took the brunt of the blow as Pyrhha lashed out with Milo in javelin form. It bounced of as she crouched down and spun Milo with what seemed like perfect finesse. Jaune grunted as the her javelin made contact with his legs, they buckled under pressure as Pyrhha flipped forwards onto Jaune's shield and launched herself back into a fighting stance, all the while knocking Jaune backwards.

She walked over towards him and offered him a hand, pulling him up with a grunt of exertion. "You did well today Jaune." his partner/trainer praised. To anyone else, it would look like she was genuinely proud of his accomplishments, but Jaune saw through it. Her smile was strained as she tried to keep her voice steady, he had seen been partners with Pyrhha long enough to know when she was acting or not.

She was disappointed, and frankly, she shouldn't have been surprised.

Even Jaune himself thought he was a moron, a filthy rat who needed to depend on his friends, a loser, a failure, someone who didn't deserve the Arc name, and those were only a few that were said straight to his face. You can guess, however, who made these snarky remarks.

Cardin Winchester and his lackeys.

Ever since the incident with the ursa major, Cardin hadn't started to get his act together, quite the opposite actually. But he did stop bullying everyone else, everyone but the loser of Beacon-he never even knew he had gotten that name-Jaune.

He put on a forced smile of his own," Thanks Pyr, couldn't have done it without you." he made a false show of flashing a thumbs up," Well you can go on ahead, I'll just stay here for a while." Pyrhha raised an eyebrow," Are you sure?" she asked with concern. He waved it off," Yea, I'm fine. G'night Pyr."

He didn't hear her reply as he walked to the edge of the roof and sat down, letting his legs dangle off as he propped himself up with his two arms behind him. He started to chuckle, then it slowly turned into a small laugh, before it turned into full grown laughter. It wasn't the laughter that one would have when presented with something funny, no...

This was the laughter of someone who was completely and utterly broken.

His 'friends' had been talking behind his back for a long time now, he overheard them a few weeks ago while he was walking past RWBY's dorm room. The sad thing was they all agreed on the fact that he was a failure, and as Weiss had put it, he was undeserving of his title. Those words, those exact words, were the ones that always hurt the most. All he ever wanted was for his parents to become proud of his accomplishments.

 **Was that too much to ask for?!**

-Page Break-

Jaune had been walking towards his dorm room when he overheard team RWBY start up a conversation about him. Curious as he was, he decided to listen.

"Hey, anyone know where Jaune is?" Ruby asked her team as she went over the newest magazine that featured the top ranked weapons up to date.

He could heard Weiss 'harrumph' as she filed her nails," Why the hell would we need to find that loser." she spat coldy.

He heard a fist slam onto a table, it echoed throughout the room and made it's way towards the halls of Beacon academy. "Weiss! Don't say that! I know we're all thinking it but we never say it!" he heard Yang shout in rage.

'You basically just said it now' Jaune thought, his expression turning bitter. His fists were clenching and he felt tiny droplets of blood fall to the floor as his nails dug into his palms.

"Why, he should already know this by now anyways. He doesn't deserve to hang out with us, actually, he doesn't even deserve a team as good as they are. Heck, he doesn't even deserve his own LAST NAME!" the last part was shouted with emphasis.

Jaune's eyes widened, tears started to pool around the corners of his eyes before he ran away towards the safe haven of the rooftops.

'Guess my sisters were right.' he thought dryly

'I really won't have any friends after all.'

-Page Break-

His breathing was labored as he stared at the shattered moon before him.

Why?

He always asked himself this question.

Every. Single. Day.

Why did he have to born into a family of heroes? Why did he have to be a weak, useless failure? Why did he even bother faking his way into Beacon? Why did he have to be constantly tormented by everyone? Why did he even think for a second that he actually had friends?

His family, his own family, had made fun of him. His sisters would always tease him when he came back to school bruised after getting beat up by some students, always laugh at him when he did something wrong, and they would never even think about helping him do said things either. You want to know an even worse thing about all this?

 **His parents didn't do anything!**

They sat there and WATCHED him get teased by his sisters. When he came home bruised, all they would do was pop on an ice pack and say," Stop being a wimp." They would constantly give him chores to do around the house, and you may be thinking," Oh that's not so bad." Well you're wrong.

They forced him to do all of them. Forced him to collect firewood, forced him to get groceries, forced him to do the dishes, forced him to scrub the toilets, forced him to fix not only his bed but his sisters' beds as well, forced him to sweep the floor, and he hated it. One day a week would've been ok. But no. They made him do it...

Every. Single. Day!

All they would do was sit back and watch TV or read their books.

"Haa," he let out a sigh." I hate life."

He really did. It wasn't really life itself was bad. It was more of HIS life was bad.

He looked at Crocea Mors and let it gleam brightly under the moonlight. He tilted it until he could clearly get a look at his reflection. Upon closer inspection, he noticed some things.

He really did look ugly.

They were right. Not only was he a failure, he was also repulsive and dimwitted. He was basically all negative traits bunched up into one blonde teenager.

He looked down to the ground that stood far below him, and suddenly suicide felt like a n option he should've considered way, way earlier.

It wasn't a surprise really, even if he could take constant bullying, there was one thing that had been able to push him off the edge, not literally, at least, not yet. He chuckled at his morbid sense of humor.

Birthdays were big occasions between RWBY and JNPR, every single one had been a big occasion. Ranging from Weiss having a dinner at an elegant buffet to Ruby going to an arcade and weapons shop. They all had a good time. All except for Jaune.

Because they didn't even care.

He could tell he wasn't wanted at those parties, well, not by Ruby, he couldn't exactly tell. But for Weiss, she basically paid for everyone but Jaune and said," I don't have enough for everyone." Which, of course, was a total lie.

So it didn't come as a surprise when none of them remembered that the loser of Beacon even had a birthday. In all honesty, he stopped having birthdays at 5, when the teasing from his sisters started.

So here he sat, all alone with only the cold, unforgiving breeze and his weapons to keep him company. Slowly thinking about all the reasons to stop living life and just get it over with.

With shaky hands, he scribbled a lousy note that explained most of everything up to this point, deciding to at least give some closure to the people who actually spared some shred of concern for his well-being, mainly Ruby.

He took a deep breath, before setting Crocea Mors down next to his message, he stood up...

and launched himself down towards the ground to finally get away from life's evil grasp.

-Page Break-

Ruby clad in her rose pyjamas and beowolf mask was walking up the stairs towards Beacon's rooftop, looking where Pyrhha had said Jaune was last. She slowly opened the door and called out." Jaune?"

Hearing no reply she opened the door fully and was met with a piece of paper, along with a sword and shield, Jaune's sword and shield.

She walked over towards where they lay scattered and let her eyes scan over the page, that's when she gasped in terror before looking over the edge, she could faintly make out a figure sprawled out against the ground. Her eyes started to water, but she quickly shook them away.

'I need to get help.'

She dashed away towards her dorm room and burst through the door, startling all three of her teammates in the process," Guys! No time! Come on!"

Yang could tell it was urgent and followed her as she ran towards where Jaune lay, Weiss and Blake following suit. A few students woke up as they heard the commotion, but groggily drifted back to sleep, too tired to even care.

"What is the meaning of this?!" Weiss shouted, but Ruby didn't reply, she didn't dare reply. It would only slow her down, and every second she wasted was another second that Jaune risked losing his life. She wouldn't, no, _couldn't_ take that risk.

She ran through the courtyard and through her peripherals, she could make out a figure with blonde hair, still laying unmoving on the hard ground. "JAUNE!" she screamed. The figure of her concerns didn't even bother to twitch in response.

Upon hearing the name, Weiss slowed down a bit into a walking pace," Oh, just that idiot." she mumbled just loud enough for the four girls of team RWBY to hear, apparently she hadn't seen his sprawled figure just yet. She played it off, it could've been an emergency but she played it off, all because the problem concerned Jaune.

Ruby felt sick. She was past breaking point a _long_ time ago.

"WEISS! WHY DO YOU ALWAYS CALL HIM THAT! JUST BECAUSE HE'S PART OF THE PROBLEM YOU THINK THAT MAKES IT ANY LESS URGENT?! YOU'RE ONE OF THE REASONS HE'S LIKE THIS!" she lashed out. All the while never slowing down for a second in getting towards the blonde boy.

"WHY?! BECAUSE IT'S-Oh my god." Weiss stopped mid-sentence when she looked upon his body.

Ruby frantically put her hand on his neck to find a pulse, and slumped in relief when she felt the soft beating, it may have been faint, but it was there nontheless.

"He's alive." she whispered to herself, tears not of sadness, but of joy now trailing down her face as she saw his aura working around his injuries. She picked him up with surprising ease and stalked off towards the infirmary without saying anything to her 'friends'. They betrayed Jaune, that counted as betraying her as well. Except for Blake, but she just didn't talk about Jaune in general, so she wouldn't know.

"Speak of the devil and she shall appear." Ruby mumbled as Blake started walking beside Ruby, now helping her carry Jaune by wrapping his arms around their shoulders.

Yang looked at her partner and sister and felt guilt overriding every emotion she'd ever felt, she was one of the reasons Jaune had done this. Weiss felt she was the only one responsible and would make it her goal to try and make it up to him. But the two of them knew, nothing could ever make up for the amount pain they had caused him.

"Do you think he would even consider forgiving us?" Yang asked solemnly, although she already knew the answer as Weiss shook her head.

-Page Break-

One eyelid fluttered open and he was met the harsh, brilliant light of the sun as it shone throughout the room.

"Where-?" he was cut off by someone hugging him tightly around the waist, he looked down and saw Ruby snuggling into him.

"I'm sorry." she mumbled into his shirt.

He smiled fondly at her before ruffling her hair as a sign that it was alright. He looked around the room and saw Blake, sitting down on a chair right next to his bed, a book in her lap and a rare, genuine smile on her face.

"Hey." he greeted casually. She nodded back, but he could tell there were more emotions in that then she had ever spilled.

He felt a shift and found Ruby stand up next to Blake," Oh yea! I asked Blake to help me get you a gift a few days back. Here!" she handed him a long, blue box.

Tears threatened to spill across his face, they actually remembered! He tore open the wrapping and was met with something he never expected. A long black sword with a red hilt, about 16 inches long.

"I-I don't...thank you guys...so much. You don't know how much this means to me." and he truly meant it. He looked at Crocea Mors that sat on the desk on his left, he took both the sword and shield and handed them to Ruby. "No need for these anymore then." he grinned.

"So what are you going to name the sword?" Ruby asked curiously. Jaune pondered this for a moment, before responding.

"Ladybug." 

-Page Break-

AN:Life may not be worth living. But sometimes, you've got to think about what has happened to make you want to live life up to this point. Sure you can just give up, but you have to think about the people who care for you, and how it would affect them as well. Don't just waste your life because of a few words said by one person or another. Only let the kind words from the ones you hold dear take effect. For anyone who has depression, stay strong, and don't forget that life can be really great if you look at it just the right way. So if you think this fic was poorly written, it pretty much was. The emotions throughout the story seem and are forced because of my childish ways of thinking. If this didn't seem at all like what depression really was it's because I don't fully understand the concept of it. I know, depression is a real problem and so many people experience it that I can't count the sheer amount. The ending was a bit more forced than the entire story was. Also, if you're wondering why I wrote something like...this, well, it was entirely based on my mood. So...

Love it? Hate it? Leave a review.

cya.


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